1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a pickup truck bed extender with a ramp. In particular, it relates to a bed extender and ramp capable of extending the bed past normal ramps and extenders and supporting heavy duty equipment.
2. Description of Related Art
Pickup trucks are generally used for transporting both light weight and heavy weight objects. A particular problem is that the bed of a pickup is limited in length and in addition it is difficult to place heavy objects, such as equipment or the like, into a truck bed. One solution has been to remove the pickup truck tailgate or to travel with the gate in the down position. However, this presents problems as objects longer than the bed or down tailgate are not supported underneath.
Further, the ability to support heavier objects has not been addressed with the myriad of pickup truck ramp/extenders. Typically, they support the ramp on one of the attachments to a trailer hitch, cables to the truck body, the bumper or the like. While this provides some support it is only lightweight support and does not provide much horizontal support, if at all, past where the tailgate ends or would end if there were a tailgate.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,250,874 there is disclosed a cargo ramp which does not extend the bed and is supported entirely by placement in the trailer hitch. It is designed to be used in conjunction with the tailgate in the down position. The ramp extends at quite a distance and suffers from such poor weight distribution that only light weights will prevent the hitch being torn off the truck during use.